1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic cards or device for interaction with another electronic card or device such as a computer and, in particular, to electronic cards that use acoustic signals for such communications.
2. Description of Related Art
The Internet, and the World Wide Web (WWW) in particular, has grown in popularity in recent years. In addition to news and information, merchants and consumers alike have come to view the web as a virtually unlimited source for conducting business, in the form of sales of products, services, and information. Nevertheless, many computer users are still somewhat leery of conducting sales transactions over the web especially because credit cards are involved, along with the associated fear of widespread and unchecked dissemination of the credit card numbers. These same users may also be leery of conducting non-Internet related sales transactions using credit cards. After all, anyone can swipe a credit card number and use it later for unauthorized purchases. Assurances from well-meaning web (and non-web) merchants do not alleviate these concerns because the user would have to carry a credit card in his person, which can be easily stolen or lost (and thus found by an unscrupulous thief). What is needed is a secure purchasing mechanism that provides users with the peace of mind to make a purchase on the web (or any other form of electronic purchase or other secure information access) without the fear of having his credit card number stolen by an interloper at any point in the transaction.
Typically, systems that provide security to such online users do so to the detriment of user convenience. Because the Internet is a mass-medium, the success of online services depends largely on preserving user convenience. Without such conveniences, users would become decreasingly tolerant resulting in a loss of business and social opportunities for both web merchants and users alike.
Traditional microprocessor credit cards, also known as “smart cards” or “chip cards,” provide security. But while smart cards that work in conjunction with dedicated smart card readers have become prevalent (i.e., bank cards in Europe), they are ill-suited for deployment as widespread Internet access control devices. Deploying smart card readers to users in their homes, for example, and educating users on their installation and use, are cumbersome, expensive, and inconvenient.
The prior art smart card systems largely were developed for a disconnected world; that is, maintaining a constant connection between the smart card and some other entity was considered expensive, inconvenient, and largely unnecessary. Indeed, the telephone charge itself was significant enough in cost to warrant minimizing such connection times.
In the prior art smart card, a small computer apparatus was embedded into a credit card plastic. At the very minimum, that apparatus would authenticate a user's secret personal identification number that was manually entered by the user on an in-store keypad every time a card is swiped. This authentication process did not require the intervention of any other authentication network. One aim of the present invention is to provide authentication that is as secure as ordinary bank cards, but in a manner where the functionality associated with the card is accessed via a public network such as the Internet. Ideally, such cards that send a one-way authentication signal can be used anywhere the Internet is available.
Computer network components that communicate using radio frequency (RF), infrared (IR), and wires are well known. In addition, some home appliances are controlled using acoustic remote control. However, these networks and appliances needed dedicated hardware components to realize the communication protocol; that is, specific and specialized hardware whose sole purpose was to effectuate the communication was installed therein. If such communication were not needed, the specific and specialized hardware would not be needed at all. Installing such hardware on an existing computer, TV, or radio may be expensive and/or problematic. Further, some electronic and/or computer embedded devices, for example cellular telephones may be “sealed” products, to which it is impossible to add internal components. What is needed is an electronic device that communicates with existing infrastructure equipment without the need to further equip these infrastructure equipment with any special hardware such as a smart card reader.
PCT publications WO96/10880, WO94/17498, WO93/21720 and WO93/11619, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference describe an electronic device which transmits coded information to a microphone of a telephone using a DTMF-like encoding scheme. A WWW page addressed “http://www.encotone.com/html/tech_def.html”, suggests using such a device to transmit audible DTMF-like tones to a personal computer using the computer's sound card.
Two way communications using audible DTMF-like tones, between an electronic card and a telephone communication system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,583,933, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Thus, what is needed is a communication mechanism that allows the electronic card to communicate with a transmitter/receiver without the need for dedicated or special hardware. Use of existing components would facilitate the wide acceptance of this communication mechanism, particularly in the purchasing context.
The present invention provides such a system and method and provides solutions to the problems described above.